John Kirby Avoids Answering Question From Reporter About Biden Misremembering Provable Facts

Call it jet lag, call it misspeaking, call it old age, but President Joe Biden has publicly stated a few things that are easily proven to be false. His latest gaffe, claiming that he was at Ground Zero the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, has moments like these under a microscope, and members of his administration are seemingly covering for him.

Strategic Communications Coordinator for the National Security Council John Kirby made an appearance at the podium for Wednesday’s White House press briefing, and Jeff Mordock of the Washington Times bluntly asked him: “What is going on with the president?” Kirby’s answer was straight out of the PR playbook:

Mordock: John, in the past couple of weeks, the president has lied about being at Ground Zero the day after the September 11th attacks, falsely claiming he saw the Pittsburgh bridge collapse, claimed his grandfather died in the hospital days before his birth. What is going on with the president? Is he just believing things that didn’t happen did happen, or is he just randomly making stuff up?

Kirby: The president was deeply touched and honored to be able to spend 9/11 with military members there in Alaska and some families and was honored by their presence and the chance to make an important set of remarks about why we need to continue to remember that day. And he did that. And he spoke about a visit to Ground Zero, which he did participate in about a week or so after the event, and what that looked and what that smelled and what that felt like. And it had a visceral impact on him as it did so many other Americans on that terrible day.

And he’s focused on making sure that an attack like that never happens again, which is why we’ve improved our over the horizon counterterrorism capability and why we continue to hold terrorist networks accountable, and it’s why he spent so much time last week shoring up our national security interests in a vital part of the world on issues that aren’t necessarily tied to terrorism, but very much tied to our ability to secure peace and prosperity there and around the world.

Mordock: But he’s had a string of saying things that happened didn’t, things that are easily debunked. Why does he keep doing that?

Kirby: The president was grateful to spend that time with those family members and those troops.

Watch the full clip via C-SPAN.